France and Morocco open climate talks ahead of COP22

Ségolène Royal, President of COP21, and Salaheddine Mezouar, future president of COP22, opened the pre-COP meeting in Marrakesh, the last ministerial meeting before COP22, at which more than 70 countries are represented.

On the occasion, the COP21 President emphasized the three major principles determining her action:

• the climate emergency,

• climate justice,

• climate effectiveness.

The climate emergency

The COP21 President has worked actively to ensure the Paris Agreement comes into force swiftly, particularly in the European Union. Ségolène Royal called on all the parties to ratify the climate agreement as soon as possible, in order to broaden its global uptake and celebrate its entry into force on 4 November 2016. The procedures must maintain this sense of urgency.

Climate justice

The COP21 President recalled that success in implementing the Paris Agreement is linked to climate finance. The roadmap of $100 billion for developing countries emphasizes that the target will be reached in 2020.

Climate effectiveness

This depends on:

• transforming national contributions into laws and investment policies;

• galvanizing everyone involved in the Action Agenda coalitions. Ségolène Royal pledged to give a report on her action regarding the coalitions, in which the French presidency has worked especially hard;

• transparency in implementing commitments linked to the Paris Agreement;

• continued mobilization. “In this regard, the agenda of the first conference of the parties to the Paris Agreement must be robust and political, take the offensive and be capable of leading the way and matching the considerable effort made to obtain ratifications in this nine-month period.”